Good O' Boy Roundup Report - March, 1996

2.OIG interviews of participants

From this list we established a set of 109 high-priority interviews. Persons on this list were all DOJ employees who ever attended a Roundup, frequent attendees, Roundup organizers, and recipients of special recognition, such as Redneck of the Year. In addition, priority interviews included persons who had made specific allegations about racist or criminal misconduct at the Roundup or who, based on other information we had gathered about the individual, seemed likely to be able to shed light on such allegations. During our investigation we interviewed all forty-four DOJ employees we identified as having attended a Roundup. We also were able to interview forty-eight other individuals on our high-priority list. Of the remaining seventeen high-priority interviews, five were interviewed by another agency that shared their statements with us; six refused to be interviewed; [/ While OIG has the power to subpoena physical evidence, it lacks testimonial subpoena power. Thus, except for current DOJ employees, OIG could not compel any witnesses to submit to an interview. The overwhelming number of witnesses, however, voluntarily complied with our requests for interviews. ] four could not be located; and two are deceased.

A slightly lower priority list of 166 interviewees consisted of all other federal government employees identified as having attended a Roundup (including Department of Treasury personnel), attendees who appeared to have attended a significant number of Roundups, and those who attended Roundups in particularly critical years in light of specific allegations that had been made. We interviewed forty-seven such individuals. Thirty-six others on this list were interviewed by other agencies that shared witness statements and other information with us.

Finally, OIG devised a telephone survey to obtain basic information about all of the remaining individuals on Rightmyer's lists. Many of the people in this category could not be contacted because they had moved, are deceased, or could not be reached after several attempts. Nevertheless, the telephone surveyors completed detailed questionnaires on 219 people. [/ A copy of this questionnaire is included in the appendix to this report, Section A, at 5. ] OIG inspectors asked these persons whether they had been invited or had attended the Roundup. If they had attended, the inspectors also sought the years of attendance and recollections about racist or illegal conduct at the Roundup. Twenty of these persons conveyed sufficient information to warrant a more thorough follow-up interview.